D-Day at 75: The Guns of the Allies at Normandy (PHOTOS)

By Chris Eger

About half of the Allies that hit the beaches and landing zones in Normandy on D-Day were American, while the British and Canadians made up the other half. (Photo: British National Army Museum)
Operation Overlord on June 6, 1944, along the French coast of Normandy during World War II was very much an Allied operation, and the guns they carried were varied and interesting.
While the Americans were detailed to hit two of the five invasion beachheads– Omaha and Utah— their British and Canadian allies were tasked with taking out three beaches of their own– Gold, Juno, and Sword. For both Commonwealth allies, the primary infantry rifle was the Lee-Enfield .303.
Canadians boarding a troopship for Normandy, June 5, 1944. Note their No. 4 Enfields, complete with breech covers to aid in keeping sand and mud out. Of note to sci-fi nerds, among the Canadians on Juno that day was James Doohan, who later went on to portray “Scotty” in Star Trek. On D-Day he caught a six bullets from a machine gun and lived to tell the tale. (Photo: Library and Archives Canada)
First introduced in 1907, the original version of this bolt-action classic was the Short Magazine Lee–Enfield Mk III, or just

Source: Guns.com